Lin-Manuel Miranda

You might not be able to snag Hamilton tickets, but you can catch the play’s Pulitzer Prize-winning creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, on last night’s episode of HBO’s Last Week Tonight. The playwright joined comedian and host John Oliver to ask the US congress to do something about Puerto Rico’s crippling $70 billion debt crisis.

The hip-hop musical based on the life of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton got its start with playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda’s 2009 performance of the then-in-the-works “Hamilton Mixtape” at the White House and has evolved into a global phenomenon. [...] In a time of uncertain power shifts in a changing global order, Hamilton quietly asserts America’s best qualities without glossing over the worst, sending a message of optimism about the country’s future. It thus has the potential to further American ideological appeal among foreign audiences.

A scene from the musical Hamilton

The soft power potential of "Hamilton."